Hamilton pleased with damage limitation

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton says he was pleased to recover to third position after another difficult opening lap to a Grand Prix.

Hamilton dropped to sixth from pole at the start in Australia and once more bogged down off the line, though held a comfortable second into the first corner before he was hit by Valtteri Bottas.

Hamilton slipped behind several rivals and suffered damage, but was able to recover to third spot, though is now 17 points behind team-mate Nico Rosberg.

"[The bad starts were] but both equally painful, maybe today a little more painful, nonetheless we still managed to get up there and get some points, so again damage limitation," he said.

"Congratulations to Nico, kind of easy race for him I would assume, but I’m glad it wasn’t more points [lost], obviously could have not finished the race.

"I had so much damage on the car that I couldn’t keep up with Kimi [Raikkonen], I was fighting but the rear end was nowhere, I did what I could with it and at the end it was trying to keep the tyres in case I got an opportunity with the Safety Car but it didn’t come."